Lost in London [Completed]

Vingt-et-Un

Kay returned to his apartment early that afternoon, walking into silence. That was strange. He glanced around, spotting Fido in his usual place on the couch and panting. Even stranger.

"Hey, you want a walk?" Kay asked, bracing himself for the dog to come barrelling towards him. He didn't. "Fido? You okay?" He asked again as he dumped his jacket onto the floor by the door and crossed the room, sitting beside the dog.

Kay scratched Fido behind the ears and sat down beside him, eliciting a yelp from the animal. He stood back up and glanced around quickly. Had he eaten something? There wasn't anything that Kay had left out. He'd learnt his lesson after the first pizza had been knocked off of the kitchen counter. He always put things away.

He headed into the kitchen, catching sight of the cut vegetables sitting so innocently in their dish on the counter. Kay hadn't left them there.

In the next moment, he was on the phone to London.

"London? Someone's been in my apartment, I think – I don't know who, or why. Nothing is missing, but things have moved, and Fido is acting off and..." Kay paused to take a breath and London took advantage of it, interrupting him.

"Slow down, who would want to break into your apartment to hang out with your dog? Are you sure things have moved?"

"I don't know! I don't know, but they have. I'm not being paranoid! And Fido never acts like this. He's drooling a ton and doesn't want to move. What do I do?"

"I can borrow Ferris' car and take you to the vet, it'll be fine, then we can deal with your break-in, okay?" London suggested, being the voice of reason Kay so desperately needed right now. "Meet me out the front with Fido and we can go right now."

Kay said something in agreement, before hanging up and worked on getting Fido to reluctantly move. This was wrong, all of it. Whatever London said, Kay knew better than to ignore his instincts.

It was a struggle, but he got Fido down the single set of stairs and out to Ferris' car, where London was already waiting for him. Together, they got the dog into the back seat of the car.

After getting into the veterinary practice and asking someone – anyone – for a little help, Kay was left in a stunned silence at the news the vet gave him.

"I'm afraid that Fido is going to need to stay hospitalised overnight, I'll feel better if I can keep him in and have him kept an eye on."

"Okay, yeah, whatever is best for him. But what's wrong with him? This doesn't just happen!"

"Mr. Edwards –"

"It's Kay."

"Fine, Kay, Fido's symptoms seem to be consistent with ingestion of a high dose of rodenticide. Is that something you often keep around?"

"Rat poison? No – I've never even bought it!" Kay snapped, the accusation stinging. "I'm careful with what I give him. He gets his food and treats. Anything else, I always check first! I would never leave rat poison lying around. I'm new to this but I'm not fucking incompetent."

"I'm not accusing you of that. Does he go off leash at all?" The veterinarian's tone was calm and measured, almost infuriatingly so.

"Of course he does, I'm fit, but I can't keep up with him. Not if he really wants to go. But I've never caught him eating anything!"

"While he's here overnight, just check around your home and see if there is anything he could have gotten into. You got him here early, the prognosis is good. Do you have any other questions?"